Last Thursday the 26th of July, we were joined on the indie hour by the lovely Benjamin Kritikos.

I first heard Ben play at an open mic night nearly four years ago now. He had compelling song titles such as Problem with a Capitol P and Apology, a song for his (now ex) wife with the line “I’m sorry for being such a waste of space” which I could really relate to. One of the first things Ben ever said to me was “Don’t come too close, I’m homeless at the moment and haven’t had a shower in a while.” I liked him straight away.

Myself and Ben became very good friends, through playing at the same shitty open mic nights, discovering a common appreciation for DH Lawrence and a similar nervous habit of twisting our hair, and then we moved in together. So Ben is actually my flatmate. He’s very clean. And he’s handy with a cajon.

It may seem like favouritism or whatever to have my flatmate on the show, but that is the beauty of not getting paid to do this show, nobody tells me what to do either. Anyway, I wouldn’t have Ben on the show if I thought his music was shit.

I know Ben very well at this stage – he’s one of my best friends in fact – and he’s also one of my favourite songwriters. It’s one of the things I like about my life – coming home from a hard day’s tefl teaching to be greeted by Ben playing guitar on our front steps. I have huge respect for Ben’s musical work ethic – he plays music because that’s what he was made to do. In fact, he’s totally useless at everything else. Just kidding. But, it is as simple as that – Ben is one of those artists whose heart might stop beating if he gave up creating.

We also spoke to Dave Smith from Kings of Concrete, a skate and bike festival which took place on Saturday the 28th of July in Wood Quay in Dublin. Reports of the festival say it was a lot of fun, so hopefully we’ll be hearing more from The Kings in the months to come.

Tune in this Thursday the 26th of July when we will be joined by Benjamin Kritikos, who has returned to Dublin from a refreshing two month hiatus on the continent. Ben will be joining us for a live session and a chat about all things Kritikos.

We will also be talking to Kings Of Concrete about the festival happening on Wood Quay in Dublin this weekend the 28th of July.

I went to see Buck 65 in The Hub in Temple Bar last night. It was a giggle and a half, and the new material he shared with us from his up-coming Situation album bodes well for its release in September.

It was my first time seeing Buck, and I really have only listened to Secret House Against The World and Talkin Honky Blues. I had completely the wrong impression about what to expect for his live show. I really had no idea that he was going to be so funny! My cheeks hurt at the end of the night, because he kept making me giggle with silly dance moves, funny cop faces and a clever use of the english language in his between song banter. Highlights were Spread ‘Em, Indestructible Sam, a new track that he’s working on with a band called Electrelane , a spoken word version of The Floor, a great rendition of Centaur and Wicked and Weird.

It really annoys me when the gentlemen half of our population write stuff about female artists focusing on their sex appeal, but I don’t think Buck would mind if I slightly hypocritically do the same with him – he’s a babe! I think pretty much every lady in the room fell temporarily in love with a stranger last night. But of course, besides the charismatic charm he has, he put on a great show otherwise. Thoroughly enjoyed it, and looking forward to seeing him when he returns to Dublin in the next couple of months.

And thanks to nialler9 for unknowingly lending me the pic for Buck 65. Copy and paste!

Bringing a bit of poptastic sunshine into our indie hour lives were the cheeky chappies from Red Kid, who joined us last Thursday the 19th of July for a few live tracks and a play through of their yet to be released album.

The lads were a lot of fun, and produce the kind of music that would make teenage girls want to dance. And that’s not as easy a task as it once was, what with all these EMO kids about. Grumble.

Red Kid told us tales of being nailed to a stage, what it feels like to transmorph, we spoke about just what exactly an Old Grey Whistle Test is, as well as hearing tracks, both live and lushishly recorded ones. Sorry. The adjectives of the Red Kids has kind of rubbed off.

Also on this show we spoke to Rich Terfry a.k.a Buck 65 over the telephone from his London hotel room. We listened to The Floor from Secret House Against the World and Wicked and Weird from Talkin Honky Blues, and Rich told us about his Nova Scotian origins, how a roller disco changed his musical path, what his collaborative processes are, and the panic one can feel at seeing one’s album complete with deepest thoughts and feelings on a shelf in a music shop for all to hear.

Congratulations to our Buck 65’s competition winner who won himself a pair of tickets to Buck’s show last night in The Hub on Tuesday the 24th of July by simply commenting on the blog! Next time I’ll make it a bit harder by making you answer a semi-related question. And I probably won’t publish the winner’s name next time, for fear of imposter guest list people. Doh.

Lots of fun was had last Thursday the 19th of July, when we spoke to Red Kid and Buck 65. The show will be on this blog in the next day or two.

We have a pair of tickets for Buck 65’s show in The Hub this Tuesday the 24th of July to give away. Just leave us a comment with your full name and you shall be added to the guestlist. You can alternatively send us an email through myspace. And you don’t even have to answer a question or anything!

This Thursday the 19th of July, we’re looking forward to having Red Kid in the studio with us, to have a chinwag about the superiority of tangerines over satsumas and other such matters of musical importance.

We’re delighted to announce that we will also be talking to Buck 65 over the telemaphone from his London hotel, ahead of his gig next Tuesday night in The Hub in Dublin.

As always, we will be joined by The Lovely Mary Healy for the gig guide, we’ll hear a track recommnded from nialler9, and Ian Oliver will be with us to take pics of our Red Kids.

So tune in on Thursday the 19th of July from 9 to 10pm on Dublin City Anna Livia 103.2 fm or via the internet on the live webstream.

We had a great show last Thursday before I headed down to The State of Mantua on the Friday afternoon. Jeremy Hickey a.k.a. Rarely Seen Above Ground came down to the studios and treated us to a live performance…of a slightly unorthodox nature.

I first heard Jeremy play at The Dinner’s Ready Festival – see earlier post – and I loved it. I contacted him the Monday afterwards and arranged for him to come on the show.

Known to a few keen ears as the drummer of Kilkenny’s Blue Ghost, Jeremy has gone his own way – on his own. It’s a one man band affair, by choice, and this multi-instrumentalist is certainly doing fine on his own. After the release of his mini-album earlier this year, he is currently working on an album to be released later in the year. It was demos from this album that we heard on this show.

Jeremy also suggested that he would play live over the tracks as they went out on the radio. Always up for causing technical silliness on the show – as not being a sound engineer, I sometimes fall down on knowledge of what the equipment is capable of. We thought, fuck it, if it doesn’t work, it doesn’t work. Thankfully, it did work. And so, what you hear on this show is Jeremy playing along with his own tracks, on which he plays all of the instruments.

I really enjoyed the show, as Jeremy is one of those rare un-selfconscious musicians, who just likes to play. He was a lovely fella to boot, and I’m very much looking forward to seeing him at his next live appearance.

Finally found my head again after a mucky weekend down in Ballaghadereen in Co Roscommon at The State of Mantua Festival. Overall, it was a really good laugh, and an excellent mix of the craziest crusties, the loveliest folk and the happiest buzzing people in the land. Enough superlatives!

Here is a summary of 5 Good Things and 5 Not So Good Things from the weekend.

Good Thing:

The Muck – the pink wellies got probably their last outing ever. You can’t have a festival these days without a bit of mud, can ya?

Not So Good Thing:

The Muck – which prevented any cars from travelling on to the campsites. This would have been fine, if not just a wee bit annoying, for punters, but it applied to the bands as well. Bands arriving on Friday night had to leave their cars on the main road outside the festival, and lug their gear in to the crew camping site, which was about a 15 – 20 minute walk. That was just absolutely not on, and down to poor organisation and communication between the organisors, the security and the bands. Still, I’m sure The Skatalites did not have to do the same thing the following day. They’re fecking pensioners for Crike’s Sake!

Good Thing:

Talking to about half the festival on Friday night.

Not So Good Thing:

Waking up on Saturday afternoon realising that I’d talked to about half the festival on the night before.

65 Days of Static cancelling, due to (rumour had it on the campsite) being stranded in Knock Airport. Of all the places to be stranded. Good mother of jaysus. (Turns out they weren’t stranded at Knock, but had their own reasons for pulling the show – see the comment by Mike at the bottom of this post.) Also, The Sultans of Ping didn’t rock my boat – it was all a bit too over-inflated ego squeezed into tacky PVC for my liking. Not impressed. They had a bit of a barney on stage towards the end as well, after the lead singer tripped up the lead guitarist, and it all got a bit childish after that. Storming off stages and the like. Silly sultans.

Good Thing:

Being given berries that had been soaked in poteen in exchange for a rolly by an aged crusty called Mark, who was wearing a WWII helmet and was delcaring war against all the Gardai in the land. A mad auld legend. Looked 65, was probably 35.

Not So Good Thing:

The toilets. All 12 of them for about 2,000 people.

Good Thing:

There was always loo paper in the toilets. And, to be fair, they were rather industriously home-made shacks, so kudos to whichever carpenter who cut out the doors in bear shapes.

Not So Good Thing:

Some farmer-boy-gone-mad hijacked an abandoned tractor at about 4.30am on Sunday morning, driving it into the Comedy Tent, knocking out the generator for said tent as well as The Alphabet Set Tent, thus causing a premature end to proceedings. Fecking eejit! The festivities went on until the late morning of Sunday anyway, tractor or no tractor.

Lots of fun was had at The State of Mantua, so well done to all the organisors and everyone who came down and created a really great, if slightly anarchic atmosphere for the weekend.

Do tune in to the indie hour on 103.2fm at 9pm tonight, Thursday the 12th of July for Rarely Seen Above Ground – aka Jeremy Hickey. Hickey is the drummer of Kilkenny band Blue Ghost, and has used his multi-instrumentalist skills to bring forth a one man EP. Very much looking forward to having him on the show.

You can get us live in Dublin on 103.2 fm at 9pm every Thursday night, or if you’re further afield, have a listen live on-line via the Dublin City Anna Livia FM webiste.